A FEW WORDS ABOUT US

UCSC Extension’s professional courses, and subsequent certificate programs, were crafted to support the business needs and interests of career minded, lifelong learners located in the heart of Silicon Valley. Developed with guidance from key industry leaders and academic experts, these programs present University of California-approved curricula that address the specific requirements of the discipline. Programs take a practical approach, and are structured to accommodate working professionals—with the majority of our courses offered during the evening hours and on weekends.

When studying with us, you’ll interact with students and instructors who work in some of the region’s top companies. Once enrolled Extension students can choose to study in a few different ways:

In top industry-needs labs and classrooms at our Santa Clara location

Online, via our dynamic learning platform

In blended (hybrid) courses, which offer a combination of classroom meetings and online learning.

Thousands of Silicon Valley professionals have studied with us and gone on to successful careers.

OUR STANDARDS

OUR MISSION

UCSC Silicon Valley Extension combines the academic excellence of the University of California with the expertise of seasoned practitioners to provide advanced professional training that addresses the real-world needs of people who work and live in Silicon Valley..

OUR GOAL

Your Success is Our Success - We want to make your path to career success as smooth as possible. Our courses are designed to help you discover the skills necessary to navigate a career transition, a job promotion or a change in field.

ACCREDITATION

As part of the University of California, Santa Cruz, UCSC Silicon Valley Extension is certified by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).

TESTIMONIALS

What if you could communicate with drones to help schedule package deliveries? Sivaguru Manian, together with classmates from his mobile application development courses, started designing an app that could do just that. Manian had moved to California from...

Khadar Alikhan’s career in IT and technology has taken him all over the world, from England to Dubai. After working as an IT manager at an investment bank for a few years, he visited his wife in Silicon Valley, where she was pursuing a graduate...

Before she worked for a Bay Area children’s museum, Danni Pascuma worked alongside a teaching artist with the Guggenheim in New York, where she helped introduce art curriculum into elementary schools. Though she already had a master’s in arts administration...

In spring 2013, after taking a year and a half off to start her family, Anagha Kelkar-Sane made a plan for her career. First step: enroll in UCSC Extension’s Biotechnology certificate program. Find an internship to gain practical experience. Apply for OPT...

After working many years as an electrical engineer, and later a product marketing manager at an information security firm, Dave Blevins found himself at a professional crossroads. While his background was in design automation tools for programmable logic,...

After 30 years as an administrative professional, Michelle North functions as ground control for the executives she supports: managing travel, scheduling meetings, organizing special projects. When the opportunity arose for her to pursue professional...

Soon after landing a position as an environmental health and safety manager for a pharmaceutical company, Linda Barcomb realized she needed to develop some practical on-the-job skills. Her manager referred her to UCSC Extension’s dual Environmental Health...

Tom Nguyen is passionate about financial literacy—not just for himself and his clients, but for the next generation. One summer, in an effort to teach his four kids the value of creating a small business, he showed them how to buy candy at wholesale price,...

Cameo Roberson had been working as an operational and legal assistant in the investment world for a number of years when she realized she was ready for a change. She wanted to make an impact in her community, and decided to apply her skills to helping others...

Jim Lamascus self-identifies as a “blue collar scholar,” having started his career as an ASE-certified master mechanic, working full-time as he completed undergraduate and graduate degrees and eventually transitioning his auto expertise into a...

When Shunjiro Yatsuzuka moved to Silicon Valley from Japan in 2014, his two main objectives were to pass the CPA exam and to improve his Internet programming skills. He has already laid the ground work for certificates in Internet Programming...

Ramesh Aacharya came to California with an established career in medicine and biomedical ethics. Originally from Nepal, he shifted his attention to clinical trials upon arrival in California, where he discovered UCSC Extension’s Clinical Trials...

When Jacqueline Mims found UCSC Extension, she was already an established psychotherapist, guidance counselor and lecturer with more than 20 years of experience, two Ph.D.s and several professional certifications. She was also based in Baton...

When Subha Govindarajan began implementing project management methods at her internship, her organization was so impressed that it was just a matter of time before she transitioned into a full-time employee. Govindarajan adopted techniques that...

Anastasia M.S. Sulisthio just might be setting records at UCSC Extension, where she has pursued certificates in Accounting, Web and Interactive Media Design, Early Childhood Education and ECE: Supervision and Administration, and plans to extend...

Josie Petkovski is pursuing a second career teaching ESL and is the mother of a three-year-old. She’s also a veteran living with PTSD. By the time she found UCSC Extension in January 2014, she’d already had a military career and been deployed...

Every time Karina Law earns a promotion or moves into a new position, she turns to UCSC Extension’s Human Resource Management curriculum to learn the relevant HR methods and practical applications. Law works as a Senior Total Rewards Analyst at...

As an engineer, Leena Kadakia often worked alongside regulatory affairs professionals, translating technical concepts. Though her background in chemical and biomedical engineering qualified her for a lot of exciting opportunities, her interests...

Jennifer Cass had been working as an executive assistant at Sling Media in the Bay Area for a few years when she first learned about UCSC Extension’s unique Administrative and Executive Assistant certificate program. She leapt at the opportunity...

Jeremy Wadhams, founder of the educational start-up Wingtip Labs and former instructional designer at Yahoo, was looking for ways to bridge the narrowing gap between technology and instruction when he started taking courses at UCSC Extension. Yahoo serves...

Bryan Rodriguez had been working in payroll and finance for almost 15 years when he decided it was time for a career change. As a payroll supervisor, he felt like he was “one half of the HR equation,” and like any good mathematician, he wanted a...

When Shilpa Mydur relocated to Silicon Valley from Ohio, she had already completed an M.S. in nutritional science and was working as a product development scientist in an established medical nutritionals company. She was interested in...

Before coming to the United States, Priyanka Khanduri was enrolled in a Ph.D. program in India, doing a research project on effect of climate change on biodiversity of high altitude Himalayan flora. This avid student of chemistry and life...

Jayakumar Gunasekaran had worked as a solutions quality analyst in India for five years when he realized it was time for a change. He’d been following trends in Web application development and wanted to gain work experience in the United States...

An environmental engineer with fifteen years of experience under her belt, Susan Edwards enrolled in UCSC Extension’s Environmental Health and Safety program in early 2014 in order to update her skills after a 14-year hiatus. Her areas of...

Beibhinn McDermott’s career as an educator has taken her from Ireland to California, where she completed an M.A. in special education at San Francisco State University before enrolling in UCSC Extension’s Educational Therapy certificate program...

Back in 2012, Denise Andersen, a professional chemist, noticed a demand for skilled professionals in regulatory affairs. An experienced Ph.D. in chemistry, she turned to UCSC Extension’s Regulatory Affairs program to expand her understanding of...

Prajakta Badhe started taking Software Engineering and Quality courses at UCSC Extension in fall 2013—and within a year, had landed a job at a Silicon Valley startup. How’d she do it?What brought you to UCSC Extension?...

Motoko Tanaka says that it is common for engineers in Japan to work for one company for their entire career. After twelve years at Fujitsu, one of the country’s largest companies, Tanaka was ready to transition to a new career. In fall 2012, she contacted...

Jeongmin (Sharon) Ryou taught math in Korea for 12 years before moving to the United States with her family. An active community volunteer, Ryou was looking for more ways to apply her teaching skills in Silicon Valley when a friend recommended...

When Sheela Sampath left India, she was already an experienced software engineer. Her husband had accepted a job in the United States and she arrived as a dependent on his visa, but before long she realized she wanted to enter the workforce herself. In order...

Hongkai (Kyle) Shin studied kickboxing and mixed martial arts in the Bay Area for years before leaving the sport to go to college, earn a degree in applied mathematics, and eventually work in supply chain management. In 2013, after eight years on the job,...

Mary Kent has always been an educator. She started her career by pursuing an elementary school teaching credential. From there she transitioned into leadership training, eventually working her way up the corporate ladder as a professional trainer and...

Bioinformatics student Vasumathi Kode likes to sink her teeth into a good scientific puzzle. When she worked as a staff scientist in Hawaii, Kode worked for a private company that focused on the use of microalgae as a potential source of biofuel...

Purnima Krishnamurthy was considering a shift in careers in the mid-2000s when she came across a UCSC Extension brochure at her local library. Her professional background was in accounting and IT, and though she had experience in instructional design,...

Among Michael Ramirez’s professional accomplishments: he has managed the safety program for construction projects in southern Afghanistan, served as the platoon commander, safety officer and reserve coordinator for the battalion and regiment in southern...

Nadine Kabbara is a professional in learning and development with more than fifteen years of international experience. She worked abroad with Deloitte Consulting and led client projects in human capital. As a people development consultant, she designed,...

Gina Bello got to know a different side of Silicon Valley’s biggest corporations during the summer she spent volunteering as an ESL teaching assistant. Bello had relocated to Northern California from her native Colombia to earn a certificate in...

As an intern at a local startup, Sunaina Yelwal Prabhakar is designing a JavaScript software development kit for a mobile backend-as-a-service (MBaaS) platform. In other words: she’s gaining the quintessential Silicon Valley experience for programmers and...

Kahori Nakagawa was working as an investment consultant at a think tank in Tokyo when she decided to take her career in an entirely different direction. Though she had already gone back to school to get a master’s in architecture, there simply...

When Mark Burriss was working on his master’s in environmental studies at San Jose State University, he discovered a passion for industrial hygiene. He shared his interest in the field with his professor, who introduced him to UCSC Extension’s then-new...

After working for a software company in his native Brazil, Fernando Barbosa de Azevedo had his eyes on Silicon Valley. He had studied software independently online and wanted the opportunity to learn real-world applications in California, and hopefully...

Shachar Udi’s career started out in a coffee shop in Israel, which he opened at age 23. For four years he worked in the restaurant business, until he discovered his true passion for iPhone development. He studied the fundamentals online and freelanced for a...

By the time Vishal Kapoor enrolled in the Project and Program Management Certificate program, he had already completed both an M.B.A. and an M.S. in computer science. Originally from India, Kapoor turned to UCSC Extension’s International...

After completing his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the Central University of Venezuela, Juan Escobedo Contreras set his sights on Silicon Valley, mecca of hardware design. When one of his friends shared a UCSC Extension...

When it comes to the Internet, Ann Fitzsimons is a true Renaissance woman. Her passion for the Web came to life when she moved to Silicon Valley after completing her undergraduate degree in dietetics and food administration. While opportunities...

When Priyanka Redhu moved to California in 2010, she already had completed her M.B.A. and started her career in human resource management in India. As an HR generalist, she had spent a few years recruiting top talent for one of India’s largest...

When Navneet Kaur relocated from India to California, she wanted to develop clinical research skills that she could apply in the United States. Though she already had a year of experience as a clinical research associate under her belt, she was...

Mili Gopal worked in Web design in India before moving to California with her family. In 2013, she enrolled in UCSC Extension’s Web Design program, and over the course of two years, she earned the full certificate, had a child, interned at two Bay Area...

Brijesh Khatri had worked as a clinical research associate for multinational companies prior to landing in Silicon Valley in early 2013. While searching for an effective way to build clinical trials skills in the U.S., Khatri discovered that...

Scott Copeland had been working as a professional technical writer for a few years when he decided to pursue certification. His manager referred him to UCSC Extension’s Technical Writing and Communications program, which he found to be the most rigorous and...

Akshata Metha has a secret weapon when it comes to job interviews: her UCSC Extension study materials. Since completing her certificate in Human Resource Management and an internship at the Wikimedia Foundation, Metha has prepared for interviews...

When Alexandra Steinberg moved to California from Russia in 2009, she was a practicing doctor with both an M.D. and a Ph.D. Though she already had the academic credentials and experience, she wanted to transition into a career in clinical trials. She heard...

In her “Big Data: Tools, Concepts and Deployment” course, Michelle Darling had the chance to put her data science skills to the test in front of a panel of experts. Darling had enrolled in UCSC Extension’s ...

When Elizabeth Roper Tun Zan started taking Instructional Design and Delivery courses at UCSC Extension, she says she felt like Rip Van Winkle being awakened after a long sleep. After pursuing an undergraduate degree and M.B.A. in economics, and working in...

Rebecca Pereira’s lifelong passion is keeping people safe. As a child, she dreamed of becoming a firefighter. After studying at Extension, she recently landed what she says is her real dream job: Health and Safety Manager, Americas, at a top...

Emily Norman discovered UCSC Extension’s Human Resource Management and Information Technology courses during the height of the Great Recession—a point in her life where she had to evaluate her own professional interests and needs. As a seasoned professional...

Before she moved to the United States, Nikhila Yadunath worked on a software development and research project for Boeing in India. She relocated to California to join her husband, and after a few years was eager to update her skillset for the American market...

Divya Hariharan started her career in print graphic design in India before moving to California with her husband in 2012. While searching for new opportunities in Silicon Valley, she realized that if she wanted to get ahead in her field, she’d have to learn...

Before she left Azerbaijan, Afag Shukurova ran her own event planning business. Armed with two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree, she successfully led her own team before leaving for California to join her sister and brother. When she arrived in...

Maani Salimi is a filmmaker, marketer and entrepreneur extraordinaire. He moved to the United States from Iran in 2015, with the initial thought of attending film school in Chicago and later launching a startup. He soon learned that the most effective path...

Utku Sahiner arrived in San Francisco in 2010 after working as a marketing coordinator for an education company in his native Turkey and launching a small marketplace startup. When he arrived in the Bay Area, he wanted to find a program that would offer the...

Dernie Hashemzadeh started her career as a coder at Accenture, where she eventually transitioned into user training and documentation, skills she later applied as a consultant for a small Bay Area firm. When her supervisor recommended she take a marketing...

Renata Carico’s pathway to her career in financial planning carries special personal significance. For 20 years she worked as an engineer and operations manager in Silicon Valley, specializing in process development and manufacturing. She met her husband at...

Hariharan Ganapathy’s path to a new job all started with one course. He was working in audio signal processing at Dolby Technologies when he started taking courses recreationally at Extension. He already had undergraduate and graduate degrees in electrical...

When Stephanie Ortiz accepted a position in environmental health and safety at her company, she was new to the field. Her manager approached her with a UCSC Extension catalog in hand and suggested that she enroll in the dual certificate in Environmental...

James Craft is not your typical TESOL student. A 30-year veteran of the aerospace industry, Craft rekindled his interest in teaching in the summer of 2012 when, after a series of company layoffs, he received NOVA funding to pursue a certificate at UCSC...

Vicki Vozza has a picture of Senator Leland Yee standing with her and two of her students at San Mateo Union High School's Adult School. The politician, who represents San Francisco and San Mateo counties, came to her classroom because her...

Sharon Pan is good with kids. She worked as the head teacher at a Palo Alto Montessori preschool for eight years. In 2007, she heard that the school was thinking of expanding—and that they might need a site director. She enrolled in UCSC...

Vidhya Natarajan worked in IT before having her son. After he was born, she became fascinated with the way young children learn. One of her friends recommended that she take a class at UCSC Extension, where she enrolled in an Early Childhood Education child...

Sejal Mehta’s journey to instructional design reflects the evolution of this expanding field. Originally from India, Mehta moved to the United States in the 1990s to study business management, though it wasn’t long before she shifted gears into...

After completing her undergraduate degree in biology, April Raj worked in a lab before transitioning into a regulatory affairs role. Soon after starting her new position, she discovered UCSC Extension’s Regulatory Affairs program to expand her understanding...

A senior business analyst and experienced IT professional, Shashank Kolhe was interested in expanding his understanding of personal financial planning and its association with a family’s or individual’s well-being. He discovered UCSC Extension’s Personal...

When John Hubbard completed his electrical engineering degree in 1987, the Silicon Valley tech explosion was just beginning. After graduating from college, he became an unrestricted line officer in the U.S. Navy, serving on submarines for eight years before...

Suresh Pillai was working in software and network architecture at Applied Materials for a few years when he first noticed UCSC Extension’s catalogs. An accomplished engineer with a bachelor’s in electrical engineering and a master’s in computer science...

Travis Summers is a triple threat communicator: he knows broadcasting, print journalism, and Web writing. When he earned his bachelor’s degree in mass communications in the mid-2000s, focusing on print journalism, the job landscape for his chosen field had...

Gabriela Zelaya had been working for the U.S. Commercial Service as an international trade specialist focusing on healthcare and education when she started taking classes at UCSC Extension in 2009. A communications expert with experience in...

When Eleonora Migliore moved from Italy to California, she had already earned a degree as a medical doctor (clinical pathology) and a master’s degree in biological sciences. She realized, though, that she would not be able to practice medicine without...

Librarians have what Judith Mills call the “helper” gene; an innate understanding of where to find useful resources. Trained as a medical librarian, Mills knew exactly where to go when her company had to downsize. With help from NOVA’s federally...

When Niharika Deodhar moved from India to California, she had already completed a master’s in biotechnology and worked as a research associate at the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute in India. She sought out UCSC Extension’s...

Rafael “Rafa” Baca is a registered US patent attorney with an engineering background. He works with intellectual property law clients in Silicon Valley and throughout the southwest. He enrolled in UCSC Extension’s Software Engineering and Quality certificate...

Originally from the United Kingdom, Previn Brito came to the U.S. to work in bioscience. His academic background made him a good fit for analyzing the economics of biotech, but he soon realized that he wanted a better understanding of the science behind it...

Judith Bastiaanssen is a woman of many talents. Originally from the Netherlands, she studied physics and worked in research and development for a large electronics company just as the medical device market was taking off in Europe. While her...

After completing her master’s in biotechnology, Archita Sharma worked as a research associate in a lab environment for two years before moving to California. When she arrived in California, she wanted to add to her background and pursue a career in clinical...

Miranda Calkins is an experienced educator with a background in classroom teaching, outdoor education and private tutoring. She runs an independent business as an educational consultant and tutor, and over time noticed an increased need to provide her...

Jake Lee is a chief software architect responsible for developing new operating systems for smart computing labs abroad. Lee completed a master’s degree in electrical engineering abroad before coming to the United States. He discovered UCSC...

When Ana Pazos, an experienced translator, moved from Venezuela to California, she was surprised at how often people would ask her to translate from English to Mexican Spanish. During her years at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, and later as a...

Abdo Babukr is, among other things, a signal processing specialist, a software-defined radio enthusiast, the co-founder of a robotics startup, and a maker. He developed his theoretical background in electrical engineering during his undergraduate studies at...

Before he moved to California, Mahesh Pokharel worked as a procurement specialist at a United Nations development program called Local Governance and Community Development Program for almost five years in his native Nepal. He worked for more than 10 years...

During her years as an arts administrator for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Elisa Ordona learned a thing or two about finance and development. Though she believed in the arts, Ordona discovered that her passion for finance was on the...

Bhavna Dixit worked as a biotechnology research scholar in India before moving to California in 2015. Armed with a master’s degree in biotechnology and work experience abroad, she started researching programs that could prepare her to work in the Bay Area....

Niki Theil had worked in corporate finance for eight years before quitting to raise her children. While her children were young, Theil focused her mathematical talents on fine-tuning their household spending, an exercise that proved useful, not...

When Shyla Jain started looking for professional certification programs in the Bay Area, she had a big goal in mind: to gain the skills and experience she’d need to land her first job in Silicon Valley. Before she moved from India to the United States, she...

As an educator with 20 years of experience as a teacher, tutor and coach, Patrice McElligott advocates for her students’ needs, regardless of the environment. After obtaining her Clear Multiple Subject and Special Education credentials, she completed a...

Isabel Barrios is accustomed to standing out in her field. As the only woman in her graduate electrical engineering program at the University of Guadalajara, she discovered her passion for technology at an early age. She left Mexico to pursue...

When Tatiana Boytsova completed her degree in linguistics and philology in Russia, she ignited a passion for learning, language acquisition, and teaching. She explored her love for English while living in Australia, and by the time she moved to California...

By the end of her one-day “Human Resource Management, Introduction” course, Priya Raman had decided that she wanted to be a corporate trainer. Though she had worked in HR in India before relocating to California, Raman wanted to gain a strong...

When Nabeha Khan moved to the U.S. from Pakistan, she had already completed a master’s in business administration and was busy raising young children. Hungry for work opportunities in Silicon Valley, she discovered UCSC Extension’s Human Resource Management...

When Mark Chang first noticed UCSC Extension’s brochure for Database and Data Analytics, he said it was “love at first sight.” He had recently completed his master’s in finance and was looking for a way to stand out in a competitive field. He...

Angela Alcantara-Cruz is an early childhood educator with a unique backstory. After graduating from UCSC with a degree in sociology, she earned a master’s in organizational development and led a successful 20-year career in business operations in the...

When Shelley Odell graduated from college, she realized that she had developed a strong scientific foundation, but like many recent grads, she wasn’t sure how to apply this knowledge to her job. Shortly after landing her first position, her...

Meghna Patel worked as a human resources professional for a Canadian company for many years before deciding it was time for a shift in career. Though she had been trained as an engineer, after 10 years in recruitment she had not had the opportunity to...

When Poc Hsu enrolled in UCSC Extension’s Computer Programming certificate program, he didn’t realize that he would soon be applying his programming skills to benefit his fellow students. While he was planning his course schedule, he developed an application...

RAVI KALLURI, M.S.E.E. from Stanford, M.B.A., PMP® and Certified Scrum Master, has more than 15 years of experience leading complex software development projects. He has four years of experience teaching project management.

Between her undergraduate, graduate degree and now her professional certificates, Sudha Shankar has pursued her education in three different continents. She graduated with a bachelor’s in electrical and electronics engineering at a premier institution in...

Matthew Laws had been working in environmental compliance at a company in Northern California for five years when he decided to enroll in the Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) program in early 2011.

When Manya Jain moved from India to California with her husband, she had already worked as a financial data analyst with a few projects in process optimization for six years. Her daughter was only six months old, so she decided to research creative ways to...

Eduardo Lozada came to the United States from Bolivia with the goal of completing a business and technology certificate in less than a year. He had already completed a B.S. in business and had dreams of founding a start-up in his home country,...

As a former sociologist who specialized in quantitative analysis, Oana Fechete knows a thing or two about interpreting and analyzing data. She earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology in Romania, where she worked in qualitative and...

Department: Business and Management, Engineering, International Program

Within a year of completing her certificate in Internet Programming and Development, Supriya Premkumar has already launched a series of successful mobile apps. When she first enrolled, she was completely new to programming, having studied mechanical...

When Alejandro Jimenez completed his degree in engineering, he sensed that his education was just beginning. A native of Colombia, Jimenez wanted to find a graduate-level program that offered specialized training in embedded systems. Not only...

Department: Engineering

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